GSK’s healthcare blog doesn’t cross the line

If youâ€™re in a regulated industry of some kind â€“ financial services, for instance, or healthcare â€“ how would you use a tool like a public blog as a means to engage with people you want to connect with, and that doesnâ€™t cross any regulatory line?

Looking through the blog will give you a good sense of how GSK in the US addresses topical healthcare issues, including engaging with blog visitors via comments to posts. Reading â€˜About this blogâ€™ will give you a very good idea of how GSK US sees this medium.

Michael talks about the overall goals and objectives he has for the blog, as well as the learnings and experience his company has gained in the nine months since the blog launched. In our conversation, Michael also comments on the FDA hearing into regulated healthcare communication and social media that took place last November and the implications for healthcare communications in the United States (and, potentially, in other countries).

The example of GSK USA makes it clearer to see whatâ€™s possible with social media communication in a regulated business environment.

[Disclosure: The WeissWatch ThoughtLeaders podcast is part of the WeissWatch Podcast and a product of WCG, the company where I am Head of Social Media in Europe. We didnâ€™t work with GSK on their blog.]

Full marks. their UK counterparts should take note.
I worked with a number of gsk brands on digital marketing bits but never managed to get anything away with even a free comment area because of compliance issues etc.
It came to the point where we actually resigned the accounts.

A much wiser idea is to take a long hard look at the entire health insurance industry and then work to remedy the situation by taking out the waste and creating new, innovative ideas that would be a benefit for all.

Thank you for sharing this post.

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Perspectives at the intersection of business, communication and technology.

When the only certainty is change, communicator, blogger and podcaster Neville Hobson analyses and discusses trends, behaviours and practices in digital communication to help you understand what they mean for people and organizations.